Green infrastructure for sustainable source water protection

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Stormwater controls for protecting drinking water sources require detailed study in order to ensure that they will be effective for reducing peak contaminants concentrations. Typically, stormwater controls have focused on capturing runoff from the majority of small precipitation events. However, source water protection must consider the impacts of precipitation or snowmelt driven events that lead to concentrations that exceed the capacity of a drinking water treatment plant. In Canada, there are few data on the overall effectiveness of stormwater controls for reducing peak concentrations of contaminants. Furthermore, many communities also rely on groundwater resources for drinking water and there is a need to evaluate stormwater controls on groundwater quality. The proposal addresses green stormwater infrastructure for reducing threats to drinking water supplies from stormwater, including combined sewer overflows. The overall goal of this research is to validate bioretention cells for protecting urban drinking water sources. The research project will: 1) fill in data and knowledge gaps for contaminant accumulation and release from stormwater infrastructure, 2) determine the impact of the of stormwater controls on water and contaminant mass balances at a sewershed scale 3) determine through laboratory scale column experiments how stomwater quality, plants and substrate influence leachate quality, redox potential and release of metals such as manganese (a common groundwater contaminant in Canada), and 4) evaluate the effectiveness of stormwater controls for reducing surface water contamination from stormwater and combined sewer overflows for climate change adaptation. Highly qualified personnel working with our industrial partner will be trained in the areas of green stormwater infrastructure for climate change adaptation and urban source water protection.**